Text-to-image diffusion models have demonstrated remarkable capability in generating realistic images from arbitrary text prompts. However, they often produce inconsistent results for compositional prompts such as "two dogs" or "a penguin on the right of a bowl". Understanding these inconsistencies is crucial for reliable image generation. In this paper, we highlight the significant role of initial noise in these inconsistencies, where certain noise patterns are more reliable for compositional prompts than others. Our analyses reveal that different initial random seeds tend to guide the model to place objects in distinct image areas, potentially adhering to specific patterns of camera angles and image composition associated with the seed. To improve the model's compositional ability, we propose a method for mining these reliable cases, resulting in a curated training set of generated images without requiring any manual annotation. By fine-tuning text-to-image models on these generated images, we significantly enhance their compositional capabilities. For numerical composition, we observe relative increases of 29.3\% and 19.5\% for Stable Diffusion and PixArt-$\alpha$, respectively. Spatial composition sees even larger gains, with 60.7\% for Stable Diffusion and 21.1\% for PixArt-$\alpha$.

The ever-increasing entwinement of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure with the proliferation of electric vehicles (EVs) has resulted in a congruent coalescence of energy and transportation networks. However, the surfeit of data communication and processing capabilities inherent in these systems also poses a potential peril to cyber security. Hence, a bifurcated logistics operation and cyberattack defense strategy have been propounded for green integrated power-transportation networks (IPTN) with renewable penetration. This strategy leverages the potential of social participation from EVs to amplify the defense operation. The bifurcation comprises of a preclusive stage aimed at fortifying and preserving resource allocation within IPTN and a defensive stage aimed at mitigating the deleterious impacts of cyberattacks through rapid response measures. Conventional measures such as load shedding and operation adjustments are augmented by an innovative defense involvement incentive, designed to elicit additional support from EV users. A mean-risk distributionally robust optimization methodology predicated on Kullback–Leibler divergence is posited to address the limitations in data availability in simulating cyberattack consequences. Empirical investigations through case studies in an urbane IPTN are conducted to evaluate the adverse impacts of cyberattacks and examine countermeasures aimed at mitigating their effects to the greatest extent possible.

Decentralized trading schemes involving energy prosumers have prevailed in recent years. Such schemes provide a pathway for increased energy efficiency and can be enhanced by the use of blockchain technology to address security concerns in decentralized trading. To improve transaction security and privacy protection while ensuring desirable social governance, this article proposes a novel two-stage blockchain-based operation and trading mechanism to enhance energy hubs connected with integrated energy systems (IESs). This mechanism includes multienergy aggregators (MAGs) that use a consortium blockchain and its enabled proof-of-work (PoW) to transfer and audit transaction records, with social governance principles for guiding prosumers’ decision-making in the peer-to-peer (P2P) transaction management process. The uncertain nature of renewable generation and load demand are adequately modeled in the two-stage Wasserstein-based distributionally robust optimization (DRO). The practicality of the proposed mechanism is illustrated by several case studies that jointly show its ability to handle an increased renewable generation capacity, achieve a 16.7% saving in the audit cost, and facilitate 2.4% more P2P interactions. Overall, the proposed two-stage blockchain-based trading mechanism provides a practical trading scheme and can reduce redundant trading amounts by 6.5%, leading to a further reduction of the overall operation cost. Compared to the state-of-the-art benchmark methods, our mechanism exhibits significant operation cost reduction and ensures social governance and transaction security for IES and energy hubs.

This article explores social manufacturing (SM) within cyber–physical–social systems (CPSSs), leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize energy prosumer networks. We introduce a blockchain-enabled operation and management mechanism for energy systems, incorporating energy aggregators for efficient transaction audits and employing consortium blockchain and proof-of-work for enhanced security. Guided by social governance principles and utilizing the soft actor–critic (SAC) approach for handling renewable generation and load demand uncertainties, our method offers a resilient and cost-effective solution. Simulated case studies reveal a 16.7% reduction in audit costs and a 2.4% increase in peer-to-peer transactions, highlighting improved network synergy. Our approach also reduces redundant trading by 6.5%and cuts operational costs by up to 6%, demonstrating the effectiveness of blockchain in improving cost-efficiency and enhancing social governance and security in energy manufacturing systems. The findings of this study contribute a novel vista to the ongoing discourse in SM, illustrating the formidable potential of advanced information and AI technologies in amplifying the operational acumen of contemporary manufacturing ecosystems.

The predictive energy management strategy (PEMS) offers potential advantages in enhancing the driving economy of electrified vehicles using vehicle speed prediction. However, realizing accurate predictions in practical contexts remains a challenge. Departing from conventional PEMS that rely on historical speed or static traffic data, we introduce a real-time traffic-aware PEMS for improved performance. To better understand the interplay between the host vehicle and its surrounding traffic, we use a Transformer network as the predictor that employs the speeds and relative distances of the surrounding six vehicles to forecast future speed sequences for the host vehicle. To augment this data-driven approach, we develop a dual-predictor strategy based on the deep ensemble technique. This strategy measures the Transformer’s output uncertainty to gauge prediction reliability and introduce an automated threshold mechanism. Based on this threshold and real-time uncertainties, the strategy chooses between the Transformer and an exponential predictor to achieve improved prediction outcomes. A reinforcement learning method is integrated as the PEMS optimizer. For validation, we generate training data with traffic information based on the next generation simulation (NGSIM) dataset and create a test scenario in the SUMO simulator. The results confirm that speed predictions based on real-time traffic data surpass traditional PEMS, either directly inputting traffic data or excluding it. The Transformer predictor significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art predictor. Importantly, our dual-predictor design amplifies prediction accuracy by 27.2% against the standard single-network predictor under non-training conditions. Overall, our PEMS enhances driving economy by 11.1% relative to traffic-unaware models and 8.0% over non-Transformer schemes.

Effective utility system management is fundamental and critical for ensuring the normal activities, operations, and services in cities and urban areas. In that regard, the advanced information and communication technologies underpinning smart cities enable close linkages and coordination of different subutility systems, which is now attracting research attention. To increase operational efficiency, we propose a two-stage optimal co-management model for an integrated urban utility system comprised of water, power, gas, and heating systems, namely, integrated water-energy hubs (IWEHs). The proposed IWEH facilitates coordination between multienergy and water sectors via close energy conversion and can enhance the operational efficiency of an integrated urban utility system. In particular, we incorporate social-aware peer-to-peer (P2P) resource trading in the optimization model, in which operators of an IWEH can trade energy and water with other interconnected IWEHs. To cope with renewable generation and load uncertainties and mitigate their negative impacts, a two-stage distributionally robust optimization (DRO) is developed to capture the uncertainties, using a semidefinite programming reformulation. To demonstrate our model’s effectiveness and practical values, we design representative case studies that simulate four interconnected IWEH communities. The results show that DRO is more effective than robust optimization (RO) and stochastic optimization (SO) for avoiding excessive conservativeness and rendering practical utilities, without requiring enormous data samples. This work reveals a desirable methodological approach to optimize the water–energy–social nexus for increased economic and system-usage efficiency for the entire (integrated) urban utility system. Furthermore, the proposed model incorporates social participations by citizens to engage in urban utility management for increased operation efficiency of cities and urban areas.

The adoption of grid-connected electric vehicles (GEVs) brings a bright prospect for promoting renewable energy. An efficient vehicle-to-grid (V2G) scheduling scheme that can deal with renewable energy volatility and protect vehicle batteries from fast aging is indispensable to enable this benefit. This article develops a novel V2G scheduling method for consuming local renewable energy in microgrids by using a mixed learning framework. It is the first attempt to integrate battery protective targets in GEVs charging management in renewable energy systems. Battery safeguard strategies are derived via an offline soft-run scheduling process, where V2G management is modeled as a constrained optimization problem based on estimated microgrid and GEVs states. Meanwhile, an online V2G regulator is built to facilitate the real-time scheduling of GEVs' charging. The extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm is used to train the established online regulator by learning rules from soft-run strategies. The online charging coordination of GEVs is realized by the ELM regulator based on real-time sampled microgrid frequency. The effectiveness of the developed models is verified on a U.K. microgrid with actual energy generation and consumption data. This article can effectively enable V2G to promote local renewable energy with battery aging mitigated, thus economically benefiting EV owns and microgrid operators, and facilitating decarbonization at low costs.

Grid-connected electric vehicles (GEVs) and energy-transportation nexus bring a bright prospect to improve the penetration of renewable energy and the economy of microgrids (MGs). However, it is challenging to determine optimal vehicle-to-grid (V2G) strategies due to the complex battery aging mechanism and volatile MG states. This article develops a novel online battery anti-aging energy management method for energy-transportation nexus by using a novel deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework. Based on battery aging characteristic analysis and rain-flow cycle counting technology, the quantification of aging cost in V2G strategies is realized by modeling the impact of number of cycles, depth of discharge, and charge and discharge rate. The established life loss model is used to evaluate battery anti-aging effectiveness of agent actions. The coordination of GEVs charging is modeled as multiobjective learning by using a DRL algorithm. The training objective is to maximize renewable penetration while reducing MG power fluctuations and vehicle battery aging costs. The developed energy-transportation nexus energy management method is verified to be effective in optimal power balancing and battery anti-aging control on a MG in the U.K. This article provides an efficient and economical tool for MG power balancing by optimally coordinating GEVs charging and renewable energy, thus helping promote a low-cost decarbonization transition.

Resilience problems from cyber-attacks on information communication technologies exist under their wide usage. False data injection (FDI) judiciously designed by attackers may cause severe consequences such as uneconomic operation and blackouts, particularly multivector energy distribution systems (MEDS), which are closely linked and interdependent. This article addresses the cyber resilient issues of an MEDS caused by FDI, considering the uncertainty from renewable resources. A novel two-stage distributionally robust optimization (DRO) is proposed to realize the day-ahead and real-time resilience improvement. The ambiguity set is based on both the Wasserstein distance and moment information. Compared to robust optimization which considers the worst case, DRO yields less-conservative solutions and thus provides more economic operation schemes. The Wasserstein metric-based ambiguity set enables to provide additional flexibility hedging against renewable uncertainty. Case studies are demonstrated on two representative MEDS networked with energy hubs, illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed cybersecured model. The produced adaptive robust economic operation for MEDS can reduce load shedding and enhance system resilience against severe cyberattacks.

Seismic events can severely damage both electricity and natural gas systems, causing devastating consequences. Ensuring the secure and reliable operation of the integrated energy system (IES) is of high importance to avoid potential damage to the infrastructure and reduce economic losses. This article proposes a new optimal two-stage optimization to enhance the reliability of IES planning and operation against seismic attacks. In the first stage, hardening investment on the IES is conducted, featuring preventive measures for seismic attacks. The second stage minimizes the expected operation cost of emergency response. The random seismic attack is modeled as uncertainty, which is realized after the first stage. An explicit damage assessment model is developed to define the budget set of the uncertain seismic activity. Based on the survivability of transmission lines and gas pipelines of IES, an optimal system investment plan is developed. The problem is formulated as a two-stage distributionally robust optimization (DRO) model, which is tested on an integrated IEEE 30-bus system and 20-node gas network. Case studies demonstrate that the two-stage DRO outperforms robust optimization and a single-stage optimization model in terms of minimizing the investment cost and expected economic loss. This article can help system operators to make economical hardening and operation strategies to improve the reliability of IES under seismic attacks, thus managing a more robust and secure energy system.